Development Block Grant. What the project still lacked was a development equity
partner, which took the form of Canyon Partners Real Estate, which made the
investment through its Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund III while also serving as a
development partner. The 500,000-sf project, including 438 apartment units,
broke ground in early 2012 and was completed in 2015.

Beyond lining up the financing for construction, there was also the matter of
drawing would-be investors to a project with an exceptionally complex capital
structure, and which was less than 50% leased in a neighborhood that hadn’t yet
reinvented itself. The Moran & Co. team of Mary Ann King and Brett Betzler
employed a road show approach, taking investors through the Arts District and
unveiling the story—past, present and potential future—of each building in the
district. Ultimately, the ground lease for One Santa Fe traded to Boston-based multifamily investor the Berkshire Group for $178 million in May 2016.

In the annals of deals with many moving parts, Westwood Financial Corp.’s closing
on a $1.2-billion acquisition that consolidated 280 entities covering 77 different
retail properties in 14 different states on the same day—with each property covered by its own loan—surely rates its own chapter. Along with dozens of locations
and financings, the restructuring of 77 properties into one portfolio also required
the approval of more than 500 investors.

In order to get the deal done, a team of 28 attorneys and 20 title and escrow com-pany representatives was needed, along with participation from the full 81-employeebase of Westwood Financial. It also meant getting those 500 investors on board earlyin the process, through clear communication every step of the way. “The complexitywas greater than many of our top advisors had been through before,” Westwood co-CEO Randy Banchik said this past September. “It also speaks to the necessary evolu-tion of private companies to be able to compete in this arena.”One result of the consolidation of multiple limited partnerships into a singlecompany was that “we have a better balance sheet,” Westwood co-CEO Joe Dykstrasaid. “We have better resources to fully execute our growth plan and to navigatethrough the problems that occur in the shopping center business.”

BUILDING ITS FUTURE WITH FLEXIBLE SPACE

Tech firm Cloudera had occupied approximately 53,000 sf of space in two different office buildings at 1001 Page Mill Rd. in Palo Alto, CA. The company has
continued a steady pace of growth and ultimately required more space and flexibility for future expansion.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Cloudera engaged Newmark Cornish & Carey
to realize its vision for a new, expanded headquarters property including very

Less than a year after the Blackstone Group took lodging REIT Strategic Hotels & Resorts private
for $6 billion, the asset management giant exited its
investment. The buyer was Anbang Insurance Group,
which paid $6.5 billion, including the assumption of
debt, for most of the the Strategic Hotels platform.

The year prior, the Chinese insurer had acquired the
iconic Waldorf Astoria from Blackstone’s Hilton
Worldwide Holdings for nearly $2 billion. At the time, it
was the biggest single-asset hotel buy in the US as well
as the largest real estate purchase in the US by a
Chinese firm, a distinction since claimed by the
Strategic deal. After WH Group Ltd.’s $7-billion acquisition of Smithfield Foods in 2013, the Strategic transaction was the second largest US acquisition by a Chinese
buyer, period.

Anbang’s acquisition of Strategic followed its unsuccessful bid to pre-empt Marriott International’s merger
with Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The insurer walked
away from the attempt in March 2016 after raising its
bid for Starwood to nearly $14 billion. Marriott’s deal for
Starwood closed in September 2016, at roughly the
same time as Anbang’s buy of 15 of Strategic Hotels’
16 properties. Bloomberg Business reported in October
that the sale of the 16th asset, San Diego’s Hotel del
Coronado, was called off after the Committee on
Foreign Investment in the US raised objections to it on
national-security grounds.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP represented Anbang in the Strategic acquisition, fielding a
team that included Audrey L. Sokoloff, Vered Rabia,
Kimberly A. Debeers and Eileen T. Nugent. The law
firm had also represented Anbang in its acquisition of
the Waldorf Hotel.

Demonstrating that overseas investors’ interest in
US real estate extends even to niche categories, a
partnership led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth
fund, acquired a 71% interest in Yes! Communities, a
Denver-based owner and operator of manufactured
homes this past August. Deal terms were not disclosed;
however, the Wall Street Journal had earlier estimated
that Yes! Communities, which was owned by
Stockbridge Capital Group LLC, was valued at more
than $2 billion.

The on-again, off-again merger of Marriott
International Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide Inc. culminated in September, creating
the world’s largest hotel company in a megadeal valued at $12 billion. The new company now operates or
franchises 1. 1 million rooms in 5,700-plus properties,
representing 30 brands in over 110 countries, more
than doubling Marriott’s presence in Asia, the Middle
East and Africa.

Starwood shareholders received $21 in cash and
0.80 shares of Marriott class A common stock for